Timetable Office

Timetable FAQs for Staff

Here you can find the most commonly asked questions asked by academics about the production of the new teaching timetable. Please read these carefully, and if your question is not answered please contact us at timetable@soas.ac.uk.

How can I view the timetable?

The timetable is available online at Timetable Please use this link and not any bookmarked links you may have.

How is the timetable produced?

We gather information about modules running and staff availability during the spring. At the same time continuing students pick modules for the forthcoming year via student sign-up.

We then assess this information to produce the lecture timetable.

The first version including lectures and whole group activities is released in late May.

The fully roomed timetable including tutorials is normally published in the first week of September.

How do I change how a module is delivered?

Changes to the delivery of a module must always be officially approved by your department, and by Registry.

Prior to any change, please discuss the matter with us and your timetable representative.

Something as simple as changing tutorials from one hour to two can have significant impact on the shape and space needed for the module over the whole year.

Can I change the day and time of modules?

If you need to request a change to an existing module, please check with your Departmental Contact to ensure the change does not cause problems either inside or outside your department. The Departmental Contact will get in touch with Timetable Office with approved change requests.

Whilst we will try to accommodate requests; we cannot guarantee that any module can be scheduled at the requested time.

Reasons that we may not be able to accommodate your preferred slot include:

Are there any rules as to when modules can take place during the teaching day?

The School’s core teaching day is 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, but some teaching also takes place in the 5pm to 7pm slot.

Two-hour slots, during the core hours, must start at 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. This means you cannot teach 10-12, 12-2, or 2-4pm.

The School has a policy that Wednesday afternoons should be kept clear of teaching as much as possible. We will try to ensure that, at the very least, no undergraduate lectures are scheduled on Wednesday afternoons.

To try and mitigate against student timetable clashes, entry level languages are, where possible, timetabled on Monday and Wednesday between 9am -11am.

Tutorials (apart from those on the larger language programmes) begin in week two of teaching to allow tutorial allocation to take place.

When will the final timetable be published?

The roomed timetable, including tutorials, is published at the beginning of September.

Can I request a specific room?

In general, it is not possible to specify a particular room. We allocate rooms based on a best-fit basis. This is why we collect information based on projected student numbers and equipment requirements. You can request a specific type of room such as a language lab or computer room.

When can I make one-off bookings for the new Academic Year?

You can book meeting rooms and conference rooms, the KLT after 7pm plus teaching rooms at weekends and during holidays.

It is only possible to make one-off requests for teaching rooms in term time once the teaching timetable, including tutorials, is pretty much finalised.

We understand that this can cause some minor inconvenience, but we also hope that you appreciate that, within teaching rooms, your teaching must be our first priority.